Striking Midnight
by Ginger-Villiers
Summary: There's a new assassin in town- and she's going to be trouble. She's seen Killua Zoldyck around before, but he never takes the time to notice her, because no one ever does. She works in the shadows, and darkness is her weapon. But what if their lives cross paths a little too often?
1. Prologue(Yes, I know it's cliche)

"Hey, stop right there!" A teenage girl wearing a dark cloak and a large scythe was walking to the front entrance of the famous building that held legendary treasures as the guards ran up to her. "You need a permit to get inside, Missy."

The girl cocked her head slightly with a childish giggle. Her eyes were still hidden under her bangs.

"Oh? Will you play with me?" She asked in a voice that sounded like it belonged to an 8-year-old.

"Er…"

The guards were astonished and froze momentarily as she faced them. "I guess not, huh?" The girl said finally as she turned to go inside.

"No." One guard recovered as he drew his gun. "You better not take another step, or we shoot."

The other guards nodded, but an obvious shiver went up their spines as she giggled again.

"Oh, so you do want to play with me!"

With an expert move, the girl's scythe was off her shoulder and pointing at the guard closest to her. Then, before anyone could shoot, she swung her scythe and it connected perfectly with all the heads of the guards. The beheaded bodies fell to the ground. Blood spattered the edge of the scythe, the girl's hands, and her cloak. She licked the tips of her fingers.

"That was fun. Let's do it again some time!"

She walked in, the door unlocking for her with ease. She didn't bother with cameras. She just needed to get what she was looking for and go. Suddenly, she heard a soft voice behind her.

"What are you looking for?"

The girl slowly turned around to see another girl with thick ginger hair, hazel eyes, and a bored expression. She was eating a green apple.

"Do you wanna play with me, too?"

There was a pause. Then, the ginger-haired girl set her apple core on the ledge next to her.

"That's sick." She said in a low voice. "How can you kill people so easily?"

"That's all I know how to do."

"Really? Don't you have any friends?"

"Friends?"

There was another pause as no one answered.

"Yeah. Friends." The ginger-haired girl replied.

"No. Assassins don't need friends. You don't make friends with Death."

"That's just a metaphor."

"No, that's not the case with me."

"You're saying that you're death? Hardly. Isn't death a guy, or otherwise genderless?"

"My name is Midnight. Midnight Moon. Otherwise known as… _Death_."


	2. Vera-san

Midnight's footsteps echoed down the stone hall as she came up to a large wooden door. It opened for her as she stepped inside a dimly lit room with a wooden table in the far left corner.

"Vera, i'm back…"

A small cat with white and gray colored stripes stepped out from under the dark table. There was a small obsidian star on the cat's forehead. Midnight brought a small golden vase out of her satchel.

"Good. How did it go?" The cat meowed.

Midnight paused, remembering the events of the night warily.

~Flashback by the Ginger Cat~

"Seriously? Well, that would explain the outfit, then." the ginger-haired girl huffed. "But I still don't believe you. Prove it."

Midnight took a knife off her belt and promptly sliced her stomach open. There was no blood, and the knife came out completely clean. The ginger-haired girl looked on, a horrified expression on her face.

All that was left was a gaping black hole in space. Midnight giggled, and sucked in her stomach a little. It healed right away.

"See? I'm completely empty inside. No room for loving feelings, or any feelings at all, for that fact." Midnight turned around to go and find what she was looking for. "Now go. Or i'll kill you."

The ginger-haired girl smirked, and disappeared. The last traces of her shadow whispered, "I know when i'm beat. Nice meeting you, Death."

~Okay back to the present-

"Smoothly." She shrugged. "Do I get what I was promised, now?"

Vera laughed and all of the sudden, she became a human with long red hair tied into a long braid and short orange dress on. She was wearing a headband with the same dark gem that had been on her forehead as a cat.

 **"** **Sure. I'll call the boss." Vera said. "He's always said he's had an eye on you… but you're just too busy, huh? Well, i'm sure you'll get recruited. It'll be fine. I'm sure you can't wait to be a member of the Phantom Troupe!"**


	3. Test

"I'm sure you can't wait to be a member of the Phantom Troupe!"

"Um… Yeah." Midnight said, not paying much mind as Vera beckoned her to follow. She lead Midnight outside.

"Follow me."

In an instant, Vera was a cat again and she ran into the dark woods. Midnight made good chase, but soon found something wrong.

"Vera… Vera, what is this? I… um, I can't see." Midnight cursed loudly as she ran into a wall.

"That's the point." A unfamiliar voice drove Midnight out of her thoughts.

She looked around suspiciously, automatically shifting her weight to her left leg and moving her scythe into a position easy to attack with. The haze lifted, and a man with dark hair and pale skin was leaning on a wall, The one Midnight had heard. Vera was grinning like the cheshire cat, now in human form again.

"Sorry, Midnight. I couldn't say anything."

"You could've at least said something." Midnight pouted, but let the matter go.

"Hmmm… Midnight, we'd like to have you for the spider." He said in a drawl. "But first, I have one test for you."

"What?"

"Pass the Hunter Exam. When you have a Hunter licence, we'll let you in."

~Timeskip to the exam place brought to you by Midnight's red Scythe~  
~Midnight's POV(Finally!)~

I walked into a large cavern-like room. The place was deathly silent, but many people had already arrived, presumably for the test. A guy walked over to me and handed me a white tag with two black numbers on it- 97. I shrugged and put it on. No need to duck out of formalities, as all I needed to do was pass this test. If It would better my chances of passing, I would follow the rules.

A ugly fat dude in a blue shirt came up to me with this big old smile on his face like he was a lunatic or something. Information passed through my mind as I looked at him.

 _ **NUMBER 16**_

 _ **MALE**_

 _ **E/C: BLACK**_

 _ **AGE 46**_

"HI, I'm Tonpa. This is my 36th time taking the Hunter exam! You must be a rook-er, I mean new."

I paused, staring at him from under my bangs. He kept smiling and took a juice out of his orange messenger bag.

"Well, let's drink to our new friendship, shall we?"

Tonpa almost forced the bottle of juice into my hand, which I dropped to the ground. "I don't drink anything. Or eat anything, for that fact."

I walked away, Tonpa's face twisted into a half-snarl.

Then, a dude with some freaking creepy eyes that looked sort of like a clown gone bad caught my gaze. I felt information run through my head.

His eyes narrowed and at once I felt compelled to look away, but I knew he was using nen, testing my willpower. I shrugged, feeling his eyes on me as I turned my back to him.

 _ **NUMBER 44**_

 _ **MALE**_

 _ **E/C: YELLOW**_

 _ **AGE 27**_

 _ **TRANSMUTER**_

It wasn't unusual for people to stare at me. I was thirteen, had loooong black hair and pale skin, and dressed like an emo-loner. A very, very dark and depressed emo-loner.

Almost at once I sensed a new arival at the door. A kid who seemed to be about my age walked in with silver hair and blue eyes and holding a yellow and green skateboard. He lazily took his badge and put it on. _Number 99_. My dark eyes trailed him as he walked around the room like a trail of hot soot. He didn't notice, but I couldn't seem to look away. I was sure I had seen his face before. When I look at someone, I can usually find out something about them. I don't really know how I get this information, It just happens.

After several minutes, I finally recognized him as he looked at Tonpa with the same look I knew so well. It was Killua Zoldyck, would be heir of the Zoldyck family. I knew his father well; Silva Zoldyck was the person that called on me most. It was possible to force me places even if you meant to or not, and I often found myself disappearing and reappearing where there had been lots of bloodshed. Thus, I met Killua Zoldyck when he was 6. Kind of, at least. He hasn't met me.

Finally, satisfied with my analysis, I made myself scarce and waited. There would be all the time in the world to survey this bunch of apes before the test even started.


	4. Skipping Out

~STILL MIDNIGHT'S POV CUZ…. CUZ I DUNNO~

An hour or so later, I jolted awake, hearing a bloodcurdling scream. The room was much more full, and Tonpa was talking to a few kids at the front, one my age, the other two older, guessing 16 or so. I didn't linger on them as I got to the source of the noise. Number 44, the creepy guy from earlier, had turned some dude's arms into butterflies or something. The screaming guy's arms had been cut off or something, and he seemed to be the cause. I didn't bother looking into it more, straightening myself up and stretching.

"Hey, watch where you put your stuff!" I took a startled breath as the cool silver-haired boy accidentally tripped over my scythe that had, well, accidentally slipped down. Saying sorry was not something that came to me easily.

"You should be looking at your surroundings better." I said, emotionless. I heard the Zoldyck mumble something, and disappear to somewhere. All of the sudden the gate in the front of the room rumbled open, drawing all our attention as a guy with no mouth wearing a purple suit stood there. There was a pause and my scythe that was still next to me on the floor seemingly disappeared as I guessed the test.

 _Running. A test of endurance._

I sighed, sounding much like a yawn. A guy next to me poked me in the arm.

"What are you yawning about? You better stretch if you don't want to be sore for the second phase! I heard we'll be running 40km!"

This was when I yawned, but mostly to provoke him. "For Pete's sake, are you stupid? This is the Hunter exam! It'll probably be _at least_ double that."

I grinned as he fretted over whether he would make it through or not, while still trying not to show that he was stressing over the fact. Mental stress kills, trust me. I know natural killers, well, _naturally_.

"T-Thats a lie!" He stuttered. "That guy over there with the computer averaged it out!"

"Yeah, I guess I did lie. It looks like about a 150 kilometer course. And I can see through the dark super well, but I can't even see the end."

I was still lying. I couldn't see past the darkness of the tunnel. He tried one last time, mustering up some snarky comeback. "Well, you should be the one worrying! I've been training for years! You're just a kid who will fail before the second phase, like Mr. 99!"

Ah, Killua-san again.

"Actually, i'm 27." More lies. I could tell from looking at him that he was 24, so this would swing the authority figure of the conversation over to me.

As you might realize by now, lying came only too naturally for me. So did exploiting others weaknesses. The dude in the front was speaking, but I didn't bother to pay attention.

"F-Fine, Miss Smarty-pants. Have it your way." The guy said, his jaw set as he walked off.

All of the sudden, the people in front started running. I jogged up to the front, almost next to the weird guy with the purple suit. Then, I took a small skip into the air and turned upside-down straight in front of the slightly weirded-out examiner so that my face was right in his.

"Hey, make the first phase harder next time, okay? Half of these wusses are passing when they shouldn't be here in the first place."

Then, I disappeared.

I didn't really have a select spot that I was teleporting(one of my few special abilities) to, so I just opened the gate nearest to where I would hit some kind of wall. Instead(just my luck), I tumbled down a flight of stairs head first. Oh, clumsy me. I landed on my back with a thump and groaned. Maybe I should've stretched.

Grudgingly I picked myself back up and started running up the stairs. There would be nothing to do if I teleported anyways, and teleporting puts a lot of strain on my brain. It makes me feel dizzy and rather sick.

So, I bounced up the steps as fast as I could.

~Timeskip 'cuz if I put this boring junk in you'll be bored~

After what seemed an hour, I breathlessly reached the top.

" _ **Shimataaaaaa**_! I'm _exhausted_ , and achey all overrrrrr!" I moaned, plopping down on the last step.

As you might of noticed, I'm not really that dark. Just because I can't harbor kind and loving feelings towards somebody _does not_ mean that you can't act stupid and rather childish when you're alone with yourself.

And, for all of your sake, I probably couldn't of run that far. In my defense, of course.

I sighed and leaned on a wall. The lighting was dim, and I was tired.

"Well…" I murmured. "Just a little nap, I guess…"

~ _STILL_ Midnight's POV~

Again, I was woken up by people coming up the stairs. I sighed and leaned on the wall, immediately regretting this. " _ **Itai yo**_!" I whined before sitting back down at the top ledge.

"Hey, Girl! Didn't you listen to the man? You had to follow him! Cheating doesn't count!" A rough-looking guy from right behind the examiner called. Smirking, I disappeared and reappeared right behind the purple-suit guy.

"I am. What are you talking about?"

There was a pause as we reached the top. Again. The door rumbled open and everyone collapsed on the green grassy area that was a hill. There was wetlands as far as you could see- Swindler's Swamp. I shrugged. More than half of these people would most likely die in this phase.

Slowly, I put a suspicious eye on the rest of "the kids" that made me slightly uncomfortable. Just slightly. Seems Killua-san had made the acquaintance of… 405. A kid with weird black hair, a green jacket and shorts, and a _fishing pole_ for some reason. It wasn't him that miffed me, though. It was the blond haired one, number 404. He just made me jumpy. He must seemed like he could… see right through me.

Because we were running a marathon in Swindler's Swamp, I let my scythe rematerialize beside me. The handle was still sticking out into the path.

"What the hell! Is there something wrong in your head, _miss_? Can you not see that you're blocking other people's paths? Well, _**kutabare, kono yaro**_!"

Oh, Killua-san. I totally forgot(kind of). He glared at me with that weird kid behind him.

"Uh, Killua… She probably didn't mean to, let's just let it be…" The black-haired kid said nervously.

"Hey Gon! Killua! Come over here!" The other weird guy that was tall with a blue suit called them over.

"Whatever." Killua and the other kid walked away and I waited for the second run to begin.

I dug a piece of gray cloth out of my pocket and some string, along with a small sewing needle. It seemed we would be here awhile and embroidery was something I loved to do. The needle went up and down, forming letters, shapes, patterns… my walls where I used to live had been covered with stitched masterpieces.

Suddenly, I looked up to a scream from this random dude who seemed to be accusing the examiner of being a fake, and that- oh, and number 44, the clown guy, killed him. Oh…. _ **Sate to**_!


	5. Sorry

Hey, Guys(and Gals)!

I'm sad to say that my beloved cat, the real Ginger, who supported me always, died a few days ago. I'll be taking a break from writing for a little as a memorial to her... She was the best cat I could ever wish for, but she was diagnosed with FIV, a fatal disease for cats. Thank you for all your continued support!

-Ginger the Anime Cat


End file.
